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Archive for the ‘Employment’ Category

Tips For Making More Money in The Share Economy

Posted by Emily Ridley

Thanks to the advancements of digital technology having multiple sources of income and having a number of different side hustles to support yourself has never been easier. The share economy is allowing people from all over the world to make extra money on top of their normal 9 to 5 job. Here are some ways Australians can take advantage of the share economy and make extra money.

Airbnb

Airbnb is a significantly popular way for Australians to make additional income on the side. With this in mind it is important to think about and look out for a number of tax implications associated with Airbnb.

Airbnb provides Australians with a fantastic opportunity to rent out that spare room without the long-term commitment. It can also be a handy way to lease a holiday home that would be quiet for much of the year.

Rent Out Your Pool

Making sure that your pool remains sparkling and algae-free certainly isn’t a cheap process however there’s a way to get these backyard swimming spots earning their keep.

Some people are making anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000 a month or $30,000 a year by letting people rent out their pool on a platform called Swimply.

Rent out Your Garage or Shed

Empty sheds or garages can also be rented out via a platform called Spacer. Help a hoarder out and earn around $400 a month, or potentially around $4,800 a year.

Spacer can be best described as is an online marketplace for self-storage. The platform was founded in 2015 and based in Sydney. Spacer allows people to rent excess space to other people. Spacer has similar features to Airbnb and ride-sharing apps.

Uber and Other Rideshare Apps

Uber has become a popular way for Australians to earn additional income. However, drivers can find themselves potentially getting into serious tax related problems unless they do it right.

The concept of being an Uber driver is unique and gives drivers a flexible opportunity to earn additional income for anyone who owns a good quality car.

Other popular Rideshare apps available in Australia include; Didi and Ola.

There is also a rideshare app called Shebah. Shebah brands itself as the only all-woman rideshare company in Australia. The purpose of Shebah is to offer safe and secure rides for women by women. Women, women with children, and men travelling with kids are permitted to ride. Men aren’t allowed to ride shotgun via Shebah.

Rent Out Undercover Car Spots

For the past 12 months, Charlotte Ward has been renting out two undercover car spots at her home in Bondi Junction in Sydney’s eastern suburbs for $240 a month via a platform called Parkhound.

She says that the extra $480 she makes each motnhs month allowed her and her housemate, who both don’t drive, to leverage the extra earnings they made through Parkhound to snag a better rental than they would otherwise have been able to afford.

It can be revealed that people renting out their empty car spaces on the app earn on average $300 a month, or $3,600 a year.

Ward is no stranger to the sharing economy. Back in the days of overseas travel, she used to rent out her room on Airbnb to help fund her trips.

“I think people can make extra money just from the existing assets that they have that they might not realise,” says Charlotte Ward.

Take Care of Someone’s Dog or Cat

Another way to make money via the share economy is to look after someone’s pet dog or cat when they are on holidays.

This can be done by signing up to a service called Mad Paws. Mad Paws can be best described as a Pet Sitting service through which a pet care professional minds your dog, cat, puppy, bird, or other pet.

All depending on the preferences of the Pet Owner, Pet Sitting can occur either at the owner’s house or at the sitter’s house.

In the case of the former, pet sitters can offer pet house sitting, by which they mind your home and your pet. Pet sitting can span for as long as the pet owner needs, from overnight to months at a time. Pet Sitting is also sometimes known as Dog Boarding, Cat Boarding, or Pet Boarding.

9,000 Tourism Jobs Have Been Lost In Cairns During The Covid-19 Pandemic

Posted by Emily Ridley

It has been reported that 9,000 tourism jobs have been lost in Cairns since the start of the covid-19. The total number of lost jobs make up for half of the local industry’s workforce.

Prior to the covid-19 pandemic the tourism industry in the Cairns region was more 2.5 billion annually.

Mark Olsen the chief executive of Tourism Tropical North Queensland has said that the regions tourism industry employed 15,750 full and parttime works before the covid-19 pandemic began.

However, as a result of the discontinuation of the federal government’s JobKeeper program, many workers have had no choice but to leave the tourism industry for good in hopes of finding a higher paying and more reliable job.

“Without international visitation, we’ve lost about 9,000 staff over the last 22 months. At first it was the frontline staff, those on the part-time and casual roles, but as the pandemic extended on, we started losing highly skilled staff,” says Mark Olsen the chief executive of Tourism Tropical North Queensland.

“Even in the last few weeks, we’ve seen businesses have to stand down some of their most senior staff because the cash flow is so tight. We’ve lost a lot of skill and experience that has guided the region, which has been one of the most successful tourism destinations, over the last 30 years,” continued Mr. Olsen.

On Saturday 22nd January, the Queensland Government introduced quarantine-free international travel for fully-vaccinated tourists who were wanting to visit Queensland.

However, it is expected that a huge influx of international tourists will not become a common occurrence for at least the next few months. This is due to the Australian Government’s decision to limit the number of overseas arrivals to mainly just to returning Australian residents, working visa holidays and international students.

Cairns restaurant owner Craig Squire says that the recent Christmas holiday period wasn’t very busy for his business as he had a number of workers unable to work due to covid-19.

“The first week of January, we had five staff out waiting on test results, so that really put a dampener on what would have been a quite a successful trading week. We had to close for several days because we just didn’t have enough staff to operate the business. It’s been a terrible January, there’s big losses,” says Craig Squire.

Mr. Squire has highlighted that the vaccination mandate has been frustrating to enforce and having to turn away unvaccinated customers has meant that he has lost even more money.

“The concept that the unvaccinated can’t go to restaurants and cafes but can go to gyms and hairdressers and food courts, even licensed food courts, it just doesn’t stick. It basically started as a coercive measure to get more people vaccinated, we’re at 90 percent fully vaccinated in Cairns now so surely, we can let go of that. It’s not stopping the spread of covid,” says Cairns restaurant owner Craig Squire.

Restaurants Across Australia Are Fighting Over Workers To Keep Their Businesses Running

Some restaurants across Australia have resorted in poaching workers from rival hospitality venues by offering them a higher pay rise to keep their business operating. Furthermore, a number of hospitality establishments across Australia have been forced to close temporarily for the first time since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic.

The fast-spreading Omicron variant has left many industries, especially the hospitality industry in economic disarray as thousands of workers have either tested positive to covid-19 or been required to isolate as a result of being a close contact of a positive case.

A trickle of international students and temporary workers back into the country after border closures has also exacerbated staff shortages for a number of businesses, while others that manage to stay open are operating on a knife edge.

For a number of venues who have been had a large percentage of their employees being unavailable to work due to covid-19 isolation requirements, the trading hours of many hospitality venues is dependent on how many people are available to work at that given time of day or night.

Furthermore, many hospitality venues are noticing an increase in rude customers who are complaining about the wait times for them to receive their meals as there are less employees available to work in the kitchen. As a result of this meals are taking longer than usual to be made for customers.

“That’s why I always ask the customers before they order food if they don’t mind waiting as we catch up with orders due to staff shortages. Please be kind with the hospitality industry right now. We are trying our best to serve you,” says Hana Tania, owner of Indonesian restaurant Ayam Ria Penyet.

Hana Tania reveals that some restaurants had also resorted to poaching staff with offers of better pay.

“Let’s say we were already offering a rate based on the standard award, but a fine-dining restaurant could offer them $35 an hour to wash dishes. Many restaurant owners that I know told me that they can’t compete with them. A couple of restaurant owners have even offered to give their staff a few hundred bucks extra if they can refer and bring their friends to work,” says Hana Tania.

245,600 Jobs Across Australia Were Advertised Online in December 2021

Posted by Emily Ridley

The current demand for jobs in farming, animal and planet specialists is at a record high in Australia. CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman outlined that the unusually high summer rainfall in regional areas had boosted employment openings.

‘With the end of the drought, significant rainfall, improved seasonal growing conditions, elevated soft commodity prices and strong global demand for food and beverages, demand for farmers, skilled animal and horticultural workers have all surged with job ads at record highs, says CommSec senior economist Ryan Felsman.

There were over 250 farmer related jobs advertised on the internet last month. This is a record for jobs advertised online since stats were first complied in January 2006.

Records were also set for skilled animal and horticultural workers with 1,606 jobs advertised, and jewellers, arts and other trades 1,157 jobs advertised.

Australian workers are also needed to care for others, with the current demand at record levels for health and welfare support workers at 2,095 ads and carers and aides with 11,905 ads.

The hospitality sector is also in desperate need of staff with 9,847 ads for hospitality workers and another 3,462 jobs currently available for food preparation assistants.

The major reason for so many new job positions being advertised is because restaurants and cafes had hired staff since the Delta outbreak lockdowns, and consumers began to show more desire to dine out again despite the spread of Omicron.

“’Australia’s labour market is tightening, despite recent disruptions caused by the surge in Covid-19 Omicron virus variant infections,” says Ryan Felsman.

In December 2021, 245,600 jobs were advertised online, marking a 46 percent increase when compared with the number of jobs advertised in February 2020 before the pandemic. 

In 2021, job advertisements climbed by 37.4 percent or 66,900, with the Nationals Skills Commission compiling data from employment site Seek. 

Australia’s Unemployment Rate Drops to The Lowest Level Since 2008

The unemployment rate in Australia has surprisingly dropped to 4.2 percent in December 2021 from the figures of 4.6 percent recorded in the previous month. The drop means that Australia is currently experiencing it’s lowest recorded levels of unemployment since 2008.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that 64,800 people joined the workforce in December 2021 in a further recovery from last year’s Covid-19 lockdowns in NSW, Victoria and the ACT.

“Recovery in NSW and Victoria continued to have a large influence on the national figures, with employment in these two states increasing by 32,000 and 25,000 people between November and December,” says ABS head of labour statistics Bjorn Jarvis.

These figures takes employment back to where it was in May 2021 for these two states.

Bjorn Jarvis said the latest report provides an indication of the state of the labour market in the first two weeks of December, before the large increase in virus cases later in the month.

BIS Oxford Economics chief economist Sarah Hunter believes that based on the economic experiences of overseas nations it is suggested that the impact of the Omicron variant will be significant but short-lived, and less economically damaging than previous waves.

“Overall, the unemployment rate is set to remain below 4.5 per cent this year, and with businesses still looking to add staff this will create further upward pressure on wages and domestic inflationary pressure. Today’s data reinforces our view that the RBA will tighten the cash rate much earlier than they are currently signalling,” says Sarah Hunter.

4.2 percent is the lowest since August 2008 which was recorded just prior to the start of the global financial crisis when records were 4.0 percent.

EFX Accountants and Advisors